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ADDRESS 



OF 



president Mckinley, 



AT THE DEDICATION OF 



The Grant Monument, 



NEW YO RK, 



April 27, 1897. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY, 

AT THE DEDICATION OF 

The Grant Monument, 

NEW YORK, 
April 27, 1897. 



WASHINGTON: 
1897. 



Fellow-Citizens: 

A great life, dedicated to the welfare of 
the Nation, here finds its earthly corona- 
tion. Even if this day lacked the impress- 
iveness of ceremony and was devoid of 
pageantry, it would still be memorable, 
because it is the anniversary of the birth 
of one of the most famous and best-beloved 
of American soldiers. 






Architecture has paid high tribute to the 
leaders of mankind, but never was a 
memorial more worthily bestowed or more 
gratefully accepted by a free people than 
the beautiful structure before which we are 
gathered. 

In marking the successful completion of 
this work, we have as witnesses and partic- 
ipants representatives of all branches of 
our Government, the resident officials of 

foreign nations, the governors of States, 

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and the sovereign people from every sec- 
tion of our common country, who join in 
this august tribute to the soldier, patriot, 
and citizen. 

Almost twelve years have passed since 
the heroic vigil ended and the brave 
spirit of Ulysses S. Grant fearlessly took 
its flight. Lincoln and Stanton had pre- 
ceded him, but of the mighty captains 
of the war Grant was the first to be 

called. Sherman and Sheridan survived 

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him, but have since joined him on the 
other shore. 

The great heroes of the civil strife on 
land and sea are for the most part now no 
more. Thomas and Hancock, Logan and 
McPherson, Farragut, Dupont, and Porter, 
and a host of others have passed forever 



from human sight. Those remaining grow 



dearer to us, and from them and the 
memory of those who have departed 

generations yet unborn will draw their 

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inspiration and gather strength for patri- 
otic purpose. 

A great life never dies. Great deeds 
are imperishable; great names immortal. 
General Grant's services and character will 
continue undiminished in influence and 
advance in the estimation of mankind so 
long as liberty remains the corner-stone of 
free government and integrity of life the 
guaranty of good citizenship. 

Faithful and fearless as a volunteer 

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soldier, intrepid and invincible as Com- 
mander in Chief of the Armies of the 
Union, calm and confident as President 
of a reunited and strengthened Nation 
which his genius had been instrumental 
in achieving, he has our homage and 
that of the world ; but brilliant as was his 
public character, we love him all the more 
for his home life and homely virtues. 
His individuality, his bearing and speech, 

his simple ways, had a flavor of rare and 

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unique distinction, and his Americanism 
was so true and uncompromising that 
his name will stand for all time as the 
embodiment of liberty, loyalty, and na- 
tional unity. 

Victorious in the work which under 
Divine Providence he was called upon to 
do; clothed with almost limitless power; 
he was yet one of the people — patient, pa- 
triotic, and just. Success did not disturb 

the even balance of his mind, while fame 

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was powerless to swerve him from the 
path of duty. Great as he was in war, 
he loved peace, and told the world that 
honorable arbitration of differences was 
the best hope of civilization. 

With Washington and Lincoln, Grant 
has an exalted place in history and 
the affections of the people. To-day 
his memory is held in equal esteem by 
those whom he led to victory and by those 

who accepted his generous terms of peace. 

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The veteran leaders of the Blue and the 
Gray here meet not only to honor the 
name of the departed Grant, but to testify 
to the living reality of a fraternal national 
spirit which has triumphed over the differ- 
ences of the past and transcends the 
limitations of sectional lines. Its com- 
pletion, which we pray God to speed, 
will be the nation's greatest glory. 

It r s rierht, then, that General Grant 

should have a memorial commensurate 

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with his greatness and that his last rest- 
ing place should be the city of his choice, 
to which he was so attached in life and 



of whose ties he was not forgetful even 



in death. Fitting, too, is it that the great 
soldier should sleep beside the noble river 
on whose banks he first learned the art of 
war and of which he became master and 
leader without a rival. 

But let us not forget the glorious dis- 
tinction with which the metropolis among 

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the fair sisterhood of American cities has 
honored his life and memory. With all 
that riches and sculpture can do to render 
the edifice worthy of the man, upon a site 
unsurpassed for magnificence, has this 
monument been reared by New York as a 
perpetual record of his illustrious deeds, 
in the certainty that as time passes, around 
it will assemble with gratitude and rever- 
ence and veneration, men of all climes, 
races, and nationalities. 



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New York holds in its keeping the 
precious dust of the silent soldier; but his 
achievements — what he and his brave com- 
rades wrought for mankind — are in the 
keeping of seventy millions of American 
citizens, who will guard the sacred heritage 
forever and forevermore. 



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